MGM Hires Josh Zetumer to Write RoboCop

With its recent financial woes, MGM has been at a loss for the past two years delaying the latest James Bond film and leaving both Cabin in the Woodsand their Red Dawnremake unreleased. But don’t worry, there’s hope! Not only does their RoboCopremake now have a director attached, it also has a writer. According to Deadline, Josh Zetumer has been hired to help reboot the franchise along with Elite Squad‘s director Jose Padiha.

The original RoboCop was directed by Paul Verhoeven and starred Peter Weller. It was a classic 80′s action and science fiction film that spawned two sequels that unfortunately aren’t as highly regarded. Mostly because they’re terrible. MGM had the RoboCop reboot in gestation with Darren Aronofsky attached for months until MGM canceled the project, while Aronofsky went on to direct the Wolverine sequel/reboot.

But now that The Hobbitis underway and finances for the next Bond film seem to be coming together through Sony, MGM may be back in the game again. Zetumer may be an unknown, but he’s been in the trenches for a while, having made the prestigious Black List of great unproduced screenplays. And he also worked on the long-in-gestation Dune reboot, and the fourth Bourne film.

With MGM, it’s hard to know if they’re actually going forward or not. It appears that money is finally coming in for the long beleaguered studio. Everyone wants to see a new Daniel Craig Bond film, but until they have release dates for Cabin and Red Dawn, or until there’s film or video in the camera, it’s worth having a wait and see attitude. Until then, re-watching the original never hurts.

Damon worked in the film business as a Film Buyer for a theater chain for many years, which gives him an interesting perspective on the numbers. He's written for Collider, Chud, Screencrush, The DVD Journal and Binaryflix online, and was published by The New York Times and Willamette Week, along with his college, high school and middle school papers.